Submission to Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs
The world looks very different in 2010 than it did when the government made its poverty reduction commitment in 2008.
Ontario has been hit harder than most provinces by the global recession. Hundreds of thousands of contributing members of our province have lost their jobs and haven’t even had an Employment Insurance (EI) system to fall back on.
Many Ontarians are silently hurting. For some, the recession meant joining the growing ranks of poor people in this province. Others were forced to take lower paying jobs. Still others struggled with the brutal reality of poverty long before recession made each and every one of us vulnerable to an economic transformation that is nowhere near finished.
25 in 5 has prepared its Pre-Budget Submission for the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, and the message is simple.
Ontario must stay the course. Rash moves to eliminate the deficit by cutting public sector spending could be disastrous – for Ontarians and for the province’s economic recovery.
Ontario is not yet out of the woods, nor is the rest of the world. The World Bank has already warned that the global economic recovery could wilt if governments pull back on their stimulus efforts too quickly. Without bold provincial leadership, we risk plunging back into recession or faltering with a jobless recovery. We cannot afford either scenario.
Read the full submission here. And read the entire Blueprint here.
Partners and supporters of 25in5 can use the information in the submission when preparing their own submissions to the Standing Committee (william_short@ontla.ola.org by February 3) or to the Finance Minister (submissions@ontario.ca).
25 in 5 will be presenting this submission to the Standing Committee on February 1st.
